The Choosing (15 page)

Seth reacted the only way he could.  The creatures lunge had propelled him and his blade not to him, but to Sara.  Seth did not think, he had no time for thought, instead he reacted.  Rolling his body around, and turning his back to the creature, Seth shielded Sara from danger.  At that moment the creature collided with Seth’s back.  Seth felt the blade rip through his ribs, driven deep into his chest from behind.  The wind was knocked from his lungs, and light exploded before his eyes.  He was helpless.  The creature had regained his feet, and drew the blade from Seth’s back.  Seth screamed in pain.  His scream was echoed in a roar from the back of the cave.  Garret came racing, sword in hand, towards the creature.  The creature spun and raised his blade to protect himself.  Garret closed the distance quickly, and swung the huge blade at the creature.  The creature deflected his blow easily, sending Garrets blade to smash heavily into the stone wall.  Seth moaned in agony, rolling to his side.  Garret regained control of his sword, just in time to see the creature lunge at him.  Garret had no time to defend himself and so braced himself for the blow.  Midway through the air the Creatures evil, tooth filled grimace was replaced with one of panic and its blow went wild missing Garret altogether.  The creature hit the ground sprawling, the nub of a crossbow bolt sticking out between its ribs in its side.  It tried to recover brandishing its wickedly curved blade preparing for another lunge but Garret had already moved in, his blade in motion.  With every ounce of strength he could muster Garret brought his large blade to meet the creature in a sweeping motion.  The beast managed to get its own blade in the path of the oncoming assault but such was the momentum behind the swing that Garrets blade simply clashed against the beasts own blade sending it flying and Garrets stroke made true to the beasts ribcage cutting clean trough the beasts side all the way to the spinal cord where it wedged between two vertebra.  Its creature's eye’s rolled in their sockets, as it hit the ground nearly cleaved in two.  Garret couldn’t believe his eyes.  He looked up to see not Seth holding the crossbow, but Sara.  She shook from head to toe, the weapon slipping from her fingers, and falling with a loud clang upon the hard ground.  She dropped to her knees sobbing uncontrollably wrapping her arms around Seth, trying to push him onto his side, so that she could see his face.  Ashton was there then, helping Sara roll Seth’s limp body.  Garret stood frozen, not knowing what to do, what to feel.  Ashton felt Seth’s neck first, and then placed his ear to Seth’s face, listening for his breathing.  Assured of something he then climbed over Seth to assess his wound.  Grimacing at the grievous wound upon his friend he dropped to his knees immediately as he had done before, and raising his face to the heavens he prayed.  He prayed longer than usual and Garret found this annoying, how much time did he think he had?  Ashton finished his prayers, and turned his gaze down to his fallen friend.  He placed both hands over Seth’s wound and began chanting.  Louder and louder, faster and faster the chant continued.  First Ashton’s fingers exploded in light, then his hands, then his entire body.  As Garret had seen him do before, Ashton began to tremble, this gradually worsened until he began to shake violently.  Even through his violent spasms Ashton continued, controlling, bending, and twisting the god’s power to his will.  Ashton continued long past when he knew he should stop, he continued wielding the power until it was all he could see, all he could feel.  He continued even when he could no longer feel the power, he continued until he lost consciousness.

Ashton collapsed on top of Seth.  Sara did not notice, she still cried uncontrolled, oblivious to what happened around her.  Only Garret was there to bear witness, his entire body numb.  He reached down, grabbing Ashton’s limp body by the shoulders, dragged him off of his brother, laying Ashton, on the ground a few feet away, on his back.  Garret then knelt down beside his brother, looking at his blood drenched clothing.  He reached down and peeled back his brother’s shirt.  The wound remained, still bleeding.  Ashton had failed.  Knowing little about medicine, Garret removed his shirt and tied it around his brother’s torso tightly to stop the bleeding.  Sara sat, Seth’s head in her lap, crying over his face.  Tears rained on Garrets twin.  Garret sat down on the floor between the unconscious form of his friend, and the dying form of his brother.  He sat there, unmoving, showing no sign of emotion, no intention of ever regaining his feet.  Garret was numb, lost in his subconscious.

Garret was in fact dimly aware of his surroundings.  From his peripheral vision he could see Ashton lying to his left and Seth to his right.  He could hear the continued sobs of anguish from the small girl just out of his sight, and he tried to ignore them.  Ashton was alive, this much he knew.  The healer had overexerted himself somehow and passed out.  Seth on the other hand, was probably still bleeding, bleeding slowly to his death.  Garret was helpless.  He sat, unblinking, unmoving, barely breathing himself.  He did not know how long he sat there, it seemed to him it must have been an eternity, but then, as if from nowhere, Sara’s wailing was interrupted by a cough.  Garret raised his head, this new sound confusing him, and realized the girls relentless sobs had come to an abrupt stop.

Garret forced his mind to focus, and regaining control of his body turned to see if she too had passed out.  Sara sat unmoving, turning blue, refusing to breathe.  The cough came again and Garret seen Seth’s body jerk in unison with the sound.  He stumbled to his feet, to better see his brother’s features, to be sure he hadn’t been mistaken.  Sara still did not breathe.  Garret looked to his brother’s face, cupped in the small hands of the girl.  On Seth’s lips and on the girls hands lay small droplets of blood.  Seth coughed again then, spraying more blood across Sara’s hands.  She finally took a breath, but just one as she stared at the face in her hands.  Again a cough, but this time Seth’s eyes moved beneath his eyelids.  Garret and Sara now both watched him, un-breathing, waiting for another sign of life.  It came suddenly, though it was not another cough as they had expected.  Seth’s body jerked suddenly, violently.  His appendages thrashed about for a moment, and then he was still again.  Another cough followed this time spraying an entire mouth full of blood into the small woman’s hands.  She sobbed again gasping for air, and then was silent once more.  Seth moaned.  It was an agonizing sound, a sound not of the living, and it sent shivers down Garret’s spine.  The moan was followed swiftly by another round of coughs.  This time, it was several in rapid succession.  These coughs were more powerful, from somewhere deeper down. 

Seth opened his eyes then, a panicked look on his face.  He looked towards Sara and then away, his eyes unable to see, unable to focus. He tried to move, and found he couldn’t make his body cooperate.  He was having trouble breathing and tried to clear his throat.  All that escaped his lips was a gurgle.  His vision again started to go dark, and he found himself fighting for air, it dawned on him then, he was drowning.

Garret heard the gurgle, and seeing the blue tint on his brother’s lips understood the situation.  Dropping to his knees, Garret again pushed his brother onto his side, and careful to avoid his wound, he struck his brother several times between the shoulder blades with the palm of his hand.  The gurgle came again, followed by another fluid sound.  Seth vomited blood, spewing it everywhere, but as he did he gulped air.  He was wracked by coughs again and again, but he was breathing.  His vision began to clear, and feeling returned to his extremities.  He lay on his side in a pool of his own blood when his eyes finally were able to focus enough to make out Sara.  She sat in front of him, holding his head.  Tears streamed down her face, a face that was twisted in pain, a face that was one of an angel.  Seth looked into her eyes, and willing his lips to move, was able to whisper brokenly.

“Are you…”  Seth was shook by another round of coughs before he could continue.  “Are you ok?”  This time he was able to complete his question before the coughing spasms overtook him.

Sara waited patiently for Seth’s coughing to subside, and waited still for his eyes to reopen.  When they did she was smiling at him warily, stroking his hair away from his face.  Seth knew not how close to death he had come.  He knew only that he was afraid the blade of the evil creature had pierced completely through him and had injured Sara.  He was afraid he had failed to protect her.  Seeing her smile, knowing she was ok, Seth relaxed and let unconsciousness take him.

Sara used the last of her water to wash Seth’s face, and then her hands.  She sat, as always, with Seth’s head on her lap, gently stroking his face with her fingertips.  Seth remained unconscious, but his coughing had subsided, and his breathing came easier.

Garret had told her at one point earlier in the day the story of that morning.  He told it from a third person’s point of view as only Seth knew all the details.  He told her one thing however she knew immediately would be the same no matter who told it.  Seth had used his body to protect her.  He had used his body as a shield to keep the blade from her sleeping body.  Seth had nearly lost his life trying to keep her from harm.  The thought alone brought a storm of emotions to her heart.  First and foremost she was filled with gratitude and love towards the man who now lay in her lap, but she was also angry.  What kind of fool was he to nearly kill himself to protect her ?  What could possibly make him think that her life was more important than his own?  But that aside, Garret had also thanked her for possibly saving his life.  Sara barely remembered the events of the morning.  It already felt like a lifetime ago, at the time she was barely awake enough to create any conscious memories of the events.  All she could vaguely remember is Seth’s agonizing scream, the feel of the crossbow in her hands, and Ashton passing out. 

Ashton was awake now.  He had regained consciousness sometime early in the afternoon.  He was barely able to move, he had weakened himself almost to the point of no return.  Garret had dug through their belongings and forced Ashton to eat what few scraps of food they had left, hoping he would regain some strength.

Ashton recovered quickly after eating, and had told them that though he was unable to completely heal Seth’s wound, he had been able to repair his friends’ lung and heart before he had lost consciousness.  He had regained enough strength at one point that he half crawled to Seth’s side, and praying to his Goddess, started a low chant, sealing what remained of Seth’s wound.  Again he had drained himself, but he was still able to sit without any support, and so he did now.

Garret on the other hand was doing his best to keep himself busy.  He had dragged the creature (which Ashton had identified as a goblin) out of their shelter, and claimed from its corpse a few coins and the twisted blade.  It was a gruesome looking creature.  It had dark green, muddy looking skin streaked with a stripe like patterns of black.  It had no hair, not even on its arms.  The goblin had an oblong head, split in two by a wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.  Its eyes, now rolled back into their sockets, were an eerie yellow color.  It resembled a human in the fact that it too walked on two legs, had two arms with hands, but that was where the similarities ended.  Its appendages were unnaturally long and its torso incredibly small.  It was a lanky gangly creature to say the least.  After studying the creature, Garret searched around for one of the scraggly trees that grew here in the plains, and removing a large branch from one, sharpened one end with his dagger.  He then thrust the other end deep into the earth.  Hefting the Goblin’s body high, it was lighter than it looked.  He thrust it down upon the sharpened end of the pole, impaling it up through the ribcage, all the way up to the skull, holding the corpse firmly erect.  Garret went back into the cavern and went about sorting the groups’ belongings and loading them into the appropriate packs grumbling something about cleaning up the damn goblin’s mess.

It was growing late in the day, and Seth had yet to regain consciousness a second time.  They had very little if any food left, Sara had no more water, and they still had at least one more day of travel to reach the nearest town.  If that wasn’t enough, Ashton had told them it could be days before Seth regained consciousness.  He had lost a tremendous amount of blood, and it would take his body time to replace it.  Sara knew that no matter how long it took Seth to recuperate, she wasn’t leaving his side until he did.

The afternoon eventually turned into evening which was followed rapidly by nightfall.  Seth had not moved a muscle in hours.  Ashton on the other hand was again able to walk, and had laid out his bear hide bed and was resting on it now.  Garret too had laid out his blanket and sat on it looking off into nothingness.  Amazingly enough, Seth’s blanket had managed to avoid the majority of the bloodshed, and what little blood did stain it had dried during the day.  Sara had taken the blanket, as the night turned cold, and placed it over Seth to keep him warm.  Garret had stirred from his day dream when Sara had finally stood, and he sat watching her cover his twin.

“That’s gonna piss him off if he wakes up.”  Garret stated smiling at Sara.

“What will?” She asked not understanding his humor.

“If Seth wakes up tonight, and your cold and shivering while he is covered with a blanket, he will be furious and you know it.”  Garret stated finishing with a throaty laugh.

Sara smiled in response knowing all too well that his words spoke the truth.  She hoped though that Seth would forgive her if he did wake.  In any case she had decided to stay awake all night just in case he did wake up.